Cheilectomy - 1 month

At the 1 month milestone my first impressions are that I am doing better than I thought I would be. I've resumed driving in a normal trainer shoe and that's fine. It's only been short journeys so not sure what a long journey would be like - but, hey that's what cruise control is for.

Wearing sandals around the house now - my crocs rub on the new skin where the incision wound is, and it's too hot to wear socks at the moment - but do need supportive trainer shoe (my orange buddies) for walking any distance. Moving around the house easily and generally feeling less discomfort than before the operation. The toe doesn't ache at night like it used to, nor do I have pain like I did when I walk (the underside of the MTP joint is still a little tender - and swollen - and I can lie on my front (on the front of the foot where the bone spurs were) with no pain at all now. Mornings are easier when I first get up - bar the rather odd feeling on the outer part of the foot.

I'm not working at the moment, so have to spend minimum time sitting at a desk or being on my feet for work purposes, which is really helping my rehab in my opinion, and when I am at the desk, I have the foot elevated, and try to remember to elevate it whenever I'm sitting down.

Overall, feeling very optimistic. Doing my exercises today in front of a mirror, I could see some good flexion coming into the toe. I am doing around 20 minutes of exercises (2 x 10 mins) now and have been advised to do that for 3 more weeks until I get to the 8 week mark.

So, my next milestones are:

1. Longer drive scheduled for next week - circa 200Km

2. Some walking activities planned for a holiday scheduled for 2 weeks time - some gentle hiking

3. The 8 week mark at the start of September

4. Walking comfortably in my brogues - whenever that happens!

Comments

Cheilectomy - Day 14

Lots of mobility now - whizzing around doing everything for myself, except shopping and walking the dog. Can walk ok in the surgical shoe and do stuff like preparing meals and washing up, getting up and down stairs, walking to the car. Still icing the foot just to ward off any swelling, wiggling the toe and stretching it. Sometimes, without warning it has a sudden ache - similar but not as intense to the pain I'd experience often before surgery. Went out to the local tea rooms for a couple of hours with the Sunday papers, so feeling a little more normal. Looking forward to tomorrow when I have my post-op appointment back at the hospital, and to losing the surgical shoe and the bulky bandages.

Cheilectomy Week 8

As I go into week 8 from the date of the cheilectomy and osteotomy to treat hallux rigidus stage 2, I'm mindful that this is supposed to be a big turning point. In my notes that I was discharged with it states, "You should return to your normal daily activities (and stop the PT exercises) after 8 weeks, although exercising the joint from time to time may still help." Now I'm a bit literal, so I'm tempted to follow the guidance to the letter. But I actually think my PT has really only just begun. Maybe that's because I had the osteotomy, maybe the guidance is pretty good for cheilectomies on their own. And as for getting back to 'normal' activity, well, given that normal activity was much reduced due to the condition of hallux rigidus in the first place, this could be a little difficult to measure (and since I'm not a runner, and I'm in my mid fifties, it puts me a little at odds with the experiences of many in blog posts and discussions I&#

Cheilectomy 5 months

As each month milestone approaches, it feels like the toe is worst than the month before, but when I read back, I can see that's a fallacy. I guess, as it gets better, I just measure its progress day by day, so some days it feels worse and some days it feels better. And that's kinda the lesson learned in this post. For example, the last couple of weeks we've had a cold snap in the UK (temperatures down to -2 in the daytime), so I've had to swap the trainers to more suitable walking boots (something I couldn't wear last month). I've been in the walking boots every day now for a couple of weeks. It feels roomier than when I tried the boots last month, so that indicates the swelling (from Covid probably) has gone down. It's more comfortable to wear the boots now, so clearly that's progress. I've been doing around five miles in them, but do find that it's a matter of one day on, one day off. So if I do a five mile walk one day, I'm not up for a

cheilectomy-diary

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